Life's a ``Beach'' For Leo

Published 4:00 am, Monday, January 3, 2000

Three days into the 2000s, and we can already report one change in the world of cinema. From now on, every veteran who makes a movie is officially a turn-of-the-century actor.

Other than that, 2000 looks, in its broad outlines, pretty much like 1999, with the usual mix of drama, comedy, thrillers and action. But there are a few tantalizing particulars. To name one -- guaranteed to set the pulses of high school girls racing -- we have the return of Leo in a high-flown romance.

That is, Leonardo DiCaprio, the talented, smooth-faced actor who freezer-burned his way into the romantic imaginations of millions by dying of hypothermia in "Titanic." In "The Beach," which opens in February, young Mr. DiCaprio will beat a path to warmer climes. But there will be danger -- there is always love and always danger.

"The Beach," directed by Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting"), casts DiCaprio as a romantic who goes to Asia looking for paradise. He finds it on a secret, secluded island, until paradise gets overrun by poachers and drug traffickers. Then it becomes like "Lord of the Flies."

Something else to note about "The Beach." It co-stars Virginie Ledoyen, the French actress who ap peared in "Late August, Early September" and "Jeanne and the Perfect Guy," which played art houses last year. This dark-haired beauty is going to be huge. She is going to be the next Deneueve. When it happens, just remember who said it first.

Yet another cinematic legend will be making a high-profile return to the screen. Though the naive among us expected Madonna to go away in the '80s, and the hopeful among us expected that she would go away in the '90s, it's time to face it: We are going to get two centuries' worth of Madonna, and there's no way to avoid it. The best we can do is turn off VH-1 when they show her life story again on "Behind the Music."

At least her new movie looks like good casting. In "The Next Best Thing," she and Rupert Everett play best friends who would be lovers if he were not gay. Then one night they get drunk, and he becomes straight for as long as it takes to get her pregnant. From there, they decide to make a family.

"The Next Best Thing" will be Madonna's first movie since "Evita." It will also be the first to capitalize on the newfound sensitivity, proportion and spiritual growth that Madonna has experienced since giving birth to a baby and dumping its father. "The Next Best Thing" might turn out to be a good movie, a sickening one or both. But it's one I want to see.

The big literary star of the last millennium was William Shakespeare. In the past 72 hours, no one has emerged to fill his shoes, and so the Shakespeare trend continues, but with a difference: The new year offers at least three updatings of Shakespeare, with more rumored to be on the way.

There is "Titus," based on "Titus Andronicus," the Shakespearean equivalent of an action movie: A girl is raped and dismembered, and her father takes revenge by cutting off the heads of her assailants, baking them in a pie and feeding them to their mother. Jessica Lange stars as the evil matriarch, Tamara, and Anthony Hopkins plays Titus, whose penchant for high-calorie meat pies would alarm even Julia Child.

The other two Shakespeare films borrow the Bard's stories but replace his dialogue. "Hamlet," which already has snagged a distribution deal with Miramax and will be at the Sundance Film Festival later this month, stars Ethan Hawke as the melancholy Dane and is set in modern-day Manhattan. Julia Stiles plays Ophelia, and we can only speculate where the modern Hamlet tells her to go instead of "a nunnery." A convent? A girl's dorm? A Leo DiCaprio retrospective?

"Romeo and Juliet" also has been updated as "Romeo Must Die," now a romance between a Chinese American man and a black woman, set against a background of competing gangs in Oakland. Abel Ferrara did something similar 10 years ago in "China Girl," about an Italian American boy and an Asian girl in New York. Seems this is an inexhaustible formula.

This time the hero will be played by Jet Li, so we know Romeo will be able to take care of himself, and Juliet will be played by the recording artist Aaliyah. Li ended the 20th century as the biggest thing in Asia. The first year of the new century will give him his best chance yet to break through in America.

Here are 10 movies to look for in the new year:

"The Beach" (February): Leonardo DiCaprio in his first screen romance since "Titanic."

"The Next Best Thing" (March): John Schlesinger directs the new Madonna film, about a woman who gets pregnant by a gay friend (Rupert Everett).

"Romeo Must Die" (March): A "Romeo and Juliet" variation set against gang violence in Oakland, starring Jet Li and Aaliyah.